PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. - A South Florida student who wrote an article about Black History Month said she found a noose hanging near her lunch table. Moremi Akinde, a student at Somerset Academy in Pembroke Pines, wrote an article for a community newspaper and then became the victim of a hate crime, she said....

"On Wednesday, she heard a joke that was going around on campus which was, 'What do an apple and a black man have in common?'" said mother Adeyela Bennett. "The answer is, 'They both look best hanging from a tree.'"

Nooses, racist jokes--and a headmaster who's unwilling to do anything of substance about it.

Moremi said that five boys, of different ethnicities, told her and the school's headmaster that hanging the noose was a joke.

However, Adeyela and Bradley Bennett said the school's lack of reaction to the incident was no laughing matter. "He said, 'There's nothing I can do. The students involved are the best, brightest honor students at our school,'" Adeyela Bennett said.

It sounds to me like the headmaster knows who did this, even though the statement he released makes it sound like it's still up in the air. But vague statements about tolerance and respect aren't enough here. The headmaster Bernardo Montero didn't even acknowledge that there's an underlying problem at the school in his statement--he said "Administrators will also work to determine if underlying issues exist." Here's a hint--if you have teens hanging nooses at your school and telling racist jokes openly, there's an underlying problem, The question is one of severity, not of existence.